Marston and Heber Say Their Goodbyes

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is powered by Rx Smart Gear, a fitness solutions brand. 

We’ve all been there. You miss one meal and you lose your mind. Have a snack and then try Hangry Annie. Using the Rx Drag Rope complete 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 double-unders and 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 toes to bar for time. Share your snacks and time with #RxSmartGear.

“The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.” — Barbara Hall

She Studied CrossFit From the Hospital While She Recovered From a Kidney Transplant

Some background.

Ja’Nielle Alcantar thought she had the stomach flu. After days and days of throwing up every hour, her best friend gave her an ultimatum: either you go to the doctor yourself or I am taking you to the emergency room.

The doctor drew blood and gave her some anti-nausea medication. Told her they’d call her in a week and sent her home. But it didn’t take a week. The doctor called her back the next day.

Her kidneys had failed. The lab worker at the hospital told her she should be dead.

That is actually insane.

Headed into the emergency room for emergency dialysis, Ja’Nielle remembers that she could hear her pulse in her head. She looked at the nurse and said, “Please don’t let me die.”

Five days later, she went home to her new life of doctors appointments, nightly home dialysis, and changing her diet.

Desperate to feel normal and be around people, she went to boot camp with her best friend, Shala, who coached there. “It was really hard for me to constantly remind myself I was not like other people. I was in a walking depression,” Ja’Nielle said. “It was so hard to watch everyone else being so fit and so healthy. And then there was me.”

In the fall of 2016, Ja’Nielle’s father agreed to be her kidney donor. He started the process with the doctors, embarking on the month long testing process. But in December, another phone call came. Carlos had died of a sudden heart attack. Ja’Nielle has lost her father and her kidney donor.

That’s one heck of a blow.

But as Ja’Nielle neared her 36th birthday she received the best gift of all. Another phone call, this one with news of a donor match with a potential surgery date of December 2017. December 17th, just a week before Christmas, Ja’Nielle received her new kidney.

By then her friend Shala had traded boot camp for CrossFit. Ja’Nielle noticed, “I thought to myself, that’s really cool. That’s something I would like to do when I can.” She started to make mention about it in conversation, telling everyone that would listen: “I am going to do CrossFit.”

“I went on Instagram and saw that people were cheering for all the big names, but also for all the people with disabilities and obese people and the newcomers. It made me feel like maybe I could be a part of something like that.”

As soon as she could, she did.

In June, she dropped in on a Saturday class at Left Coast CrossFit. She couldn’t do all the movements, everything felt heavy and hard, and she was exhausted. She loved it.

“The work is what is recognized. That meant something to me, because I was doing as much as I possibly could in the capacity that I can. Not everyone could see that because I looked healthy and normal.”

She even travelled from Southern Cailfornia to Madison in an RV for the CrossFit Games. Seeing all of the athletes she had been following on social media through her recovery was huge. “It really pumped me up to see them, to see what CrossFit can do.”

She’s come a long way since June. She just recently deadlifted 135 pounds for three. Her next goal is a 150 pound deadlift by the one year anniversary of her kidney transplant.

She still gets frustrated, and tired. “Sometimes, i’ll go to the gym twice in one day because I have to nap in between. But I still get in here. I still show up.”

Coffee Break Conversations

What to tell your roomate who can never quite seem to get out of bed in the morning, ever, for any reason what so ever…

Exercise in bed. We repeat. Exercise in bed! Not that kind, the actual cardio kind. Wakeout, the latest fitness based app out there, runs you through an AMRAP of three easy exercises, every day, that you can do from the warm comfort of your bed. And, much like most of what we do here at Morning Chalk Up, you can do it in your pajamas. (JK, we put on pants.)

Things To…

WATCH: Better Health, Better Life

Overweight for most of her life, Angie Virden used food to cope with stress as an adult. Virden got to the point when she was too unfit to even play with her son. So, she called CrossFit Double Barrel in San Marcos, CA and made a commitment to change her life.

IT’S TIME TO PLAY.

HEAR: The Sassy Dietician 

Joy and Claire of the Girls Gone WOD podcast have on their favorite dietician, Laura Ligos. Together, they cover the difference between dietitians and nutrition coaches, the importance of sleep, and how to start small with revamping your relationship with food.

FOOD IS KEY.

EAT: Chai Spiced Sweet Potato Pancakes

Everyone loves pancakes. They’re golden for breakfast, lunch, or the always fun breakfast for dinner option. These fluffy pancakes are made with sweet potatoes, delicious chai spices, and vanilla. Top them with syrup, ghee, or almond butter. 

STACKS OF STACKS. 

BUY: Doughnuts & Deadlifts for Dudes

Doughnuts & Deadlifts just released a new line: the Dude Drop. In their custom party print, the party briefs are the undies of your dreams. Top it off with a shirt (or maybe don’t) from their new “Doughtnuts and Dad Bods” line.

HOLIDAYS ARE COMING.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is powered by

Chalk Up Community

• PRO-TIP: HOW TO CLEAN YOUR ERG — Dark Horse Rowing walks you through the best way to clean your rower for better performance and a longer lasting machine.
• JOB POSTING — College Hill CrossFit in Greensboro, NC is hiring for part-time and full-time positions. 
• NEW OWNERSHIP — CrossFit Warehouse is under new ownership. The new owner, Veronica Romero, will host a grand re-opening on Saturday, September 26th with  workouts, challenges, food and drinks.
• TWELVE HOURS OF MURPH — Sunday, October 21, Steve Janowiak at CrossFit Arioch in Elgin, IL will attempt 12 hours of Murph to raise money for the Navy Seal Foundation and the Honor Foundation.

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

Tia-Clair Toomey is getting settled in to CrossFit Mayhem • Congratulations to Peyton on his first muscle-up • Limited tickets are available for the NOBULL retail store grand opening on October 25 with Brooke Wells • Colleen Fotsch got a 155 pound strict press PR • Zach Eason got a 255 pound clean PR • Becki and Brandon Santiago made their baby announcement with a partner deadlift • Annie Thorisdottir does 9 unbroken deadlifts at 352 pounds • Jessica Griffith hits a 310 pound x 3 back squat PR • Sara Sigmundsdottir is back to Olympic lifting and hits an easy 205 pound snatch • 

…and the next time your gym runs out of kettlebells for a turkish get up, just grab the closest baby.

Marston Sawyers and Heber Cannon Reflect Back on nearly a decade with CrossFit —

Marston — “I started doing CrossFit media back in 2010 at a sectional event in Utah that Brooke Ence was competing at…Somehow I was introduced to Heber Cannon, CrossFit’s first field producer…Fast forward to the fall of 2011 and both Heber and I moved to California to go all in on the sport of fitness. We somehow made a dozen post production shows that year that ran on ESPN and sparked the fire for what was to come…Heber and I worked together over the years constantly pushing each other to tell the stories of the fittest humans on the planet. This led to countless YouTube videos, a Road to
the Games series and best selling iTunes documentaries.

“It’s hard to not feel some disappointment because I got to see the whole thing grow from a couple of dudes making fitness videos into what it is now…Heber and I are a team and now we get to pursue whatever stories we want and that fires me up. Right now I’m in Brazil with Brooke taking time to reflect on these past nine years and figure out what’s next.”

Heber — “GRATEFUL:  Amazing things have occurred in the last 9 years…Started a family. Doubled the size of that family…Inspired others to better their lives through a storytelling medium. Created multiple documentaries that now live on the iTunes Top 100 All Time Best Selling Documentaries. Created a web series with millions of views on various platforms…Created a TV pilot that secured a deal with ESPN. Directed and produced the first live major network TV show for the CrossFit Games.

“I’ve followed one rule, only tell stories I would want to hear told or make movies I would want to see. Now I’ve been given all the freedom to tell whatever stories I want. 

“I’ve separated ways with CrossFit. CF has a different vision for how they want the story of CF told. They made big changes in July/Aug and I was surprised I wasn’t let go when the new direction was laid out. I’m too busy doing awesome things to be bitter but my heart goes out to all those effected by the recent changes…I’m still figuring out where the next chapter of my life goes, but I’m well prepared for the unknown.”

Dubai CrossFit Championship Week 3 Qualifier WODs — The third week of Dubai CrossFit Championship online qualifiers kicked off yesterday. Athletes will have until Sunday 5:00 AM PT/8:00 AM ET/4:00 PM GMT+4 to submit their scores, and here’s where you can follow the leaderboard.

— WOD#3: 20 Min AMRAP

9 Cal row

9 Double KB snatch (53/35 pounds)

15 Cal row

15 Double KB snatch

21 Cal row

21 Double KB snatch

27 Cal row

27 Double KB snatch

33 Cal row

33 Double KB snatch

39 Cal row

39 Double KB snatch

45 Cal row

45 Double KB snatch

Etc

Wodapalooza Week 3 Qualifier WODs — Last night, Wodapalooza announced the third qualifier WOD for individuals. Week 3 scores will be due Monday 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET and here’s where you can follow the leaderboard. We have a hunch that another workout will be released at 7:00 AM PT/ 10 AM ET morning,
and for that follow Wodapalooza on Instagram.

— WOD #6: 

8 Minute AMRAP

Max Meter Row

“A brief jog sharpens the mind, boosts attentional control, and perceptual speed,” by Christian Jarrett, the British Psychological Society Research Digest.

If you wanted to ensure your mind was in top gear, which do you think would provide the better preparation; 15 minutes of calm relaxation, or a 15 minute jog?

A study involving 101 undergrad students suggests you’d be better off with the latter.

Evidence had already accumulated showing that relatively brief, moderate aerobic exercise, like going for a brisk walk or a jog, has immediate benefits for mental functioning, especially speed and attentional control. A parallel literature has also documented how brief, aerobic exercise has beneficial effects on your mood, including making you feel more energetic, even when you don’t expect it to. In their new paper in Acta Psychologica, Fabian Legrand and his colleagues bridged these findings by looking to see if the emotional effects of exercise might be at least partly responsible for the cognitive benefits.

They asked their participants to rate how energetic and vigorous they were feeling and then to complete two cognitive tests (versions of the Trail Making Test, which involves drawing lines between numbers and letters as fast and as accurately as possible).

Next, they allocated half their student participants to go for a 15 minute group jog around the campus and the others to spend the same time following group relaxation exercises. Finally, two minutes after the jog/relaxation session, the students answered the same questions as before about their feelings of energy, and then they repeated the cognitive tests.

The students who went for a jog, but not the relaxation students, subsequently showed significant improvement on the version of the Trail Making Test that measures mental speed and attentional control (but not the other that taps memory and cognitive switching). Moreover, this improvement in cognition was fully mediated by their increased feelings of energy and vigour, implying – although not proving conclusively – that the jog boosted cognition through its effects on their subjective sense of having more energy (in contrast, the relaxation group actually felt dramatically less energetic).

10/20: BCS Classic 2018 (Bryan, TX)

10/20: Head 2 Head in Hamilton (Hamilton, NJ)

10/20: Fittest on the Valley VI (Lahaina, HI)

10/20: Crossfit Bona Fide Third Wheel Throwdown (Portsmouth, NH)

10/20: CrossFit Katana Samurai Showdown VI: Trio of Terror (Mansfield, OH) 

10/20: SE Texas Masters of CrossFit Fall Classic (Cypress, TX) 

10/20: Barbells For Boobs (Stamford, CT)

10/20: Filthy 150 Irish Competition (Dublin)

10/20: CFT’s METAvivor Fundraiser (Carol Stream, IL)

10/20: WOD for the Fallen (Columbia, SC)

10/20 – 10/21: The Independence Games (Florence, SC)

​10/20 – 10/21: The Lincoln Invitational (Spokane, WA)

10/21: Chalk It Up 2018 (Akron, OH) 

10/21: Me Jane, You Jane (Santa Rosa, CA) 

10/26 – 10/28: JAKTRX Atlas Games (Montreal)

10/27: Tough Temple Invitational (Rockville, MD)

10/27: Rock Your Box Throwdown (St.Cloud, MN)

10/27: Halloween Havoc (Harrisburg, PA)

10/27: Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer @ CrossFit Trumbull (Trumbull, CT)

10/27: Saberspook Throwdown (Minneapolis, MN)

10/27: Monster Mash (Ann Arbor, MI)

10/27: The Foundry 5K (Steamboat Springs, CO)

10/27: Rock Your Box Throwdown (Saint Cloud, MN)

10/27: Beartown Halloween Beatdown (Lebanon, VA)

10/27: 9th Annual Fall Brawl (Gibsonia, PA) 

10/27: Boo Bash (Cleveland, TN)

10/27: Crush Cancer at Dogtown CrossFit (Los Angeles, CA)

10/27: Sin City Championships 2018 (Singapore)

10/27: Barbells For Boobs at CrossFit New Albany (New Albany, OH)

10/27: Barbells For Boobs Fundraiser (Nyack, NY)

10/27: WOD League Black River Edition (São José do Rio Pret, Brazil)

10/27: 2018 CrossFit Juke Joint Halloween Mayhem (Grand Junction, CO)

11/2: Wodapalooza Qualifier – Team (Online)

11/2: WOD League Mixed Doubles Edition (São Paulo, Brazil)

11/2 – 11/3: Women’s WOD Jam Individuals (Denver, CO)

11/2 – 11/3: Fenrir’s Mayhem at CrossFit Iron Legion (Ocala, FL)

11/3: The Battle of Port Royal Sound (Okatie, SC)

11/3: Battle for the Badges (St. Charles, MO)

11/3: PPS CrossFit Fall Throwsdown (Portland, OR)

11/3: CFT’s 2018 Strongman Classic (Carol Stream, IL)

11/3: WODamania (Riviera Beach, FL)

11/3: Barbells For Boobs at CrossFit Florian (Norwood, MA)

11/3: Bar Wars 2018  (Harker Heights, TX)

11/3: Masters Of The Midway (The Hills, IL)

11/3: Dynamic Duo Deathmatch 2018 (Southlake, TX) 

11/3: Inferno in the Forge (Lawrenceville, IL)

11/3: Perimeter Rowdown (Atlanta, GA)

11/3: Central Texas Showdown (Seguin, TX)

11/3: Rookie Rollout 3 at Troy CrossFit (San Diego, CA)

11/3: Masters of the Midwest (Greenwood IN)

11/3: Fit Wars Competition (Cedar Park, TX)

11/3- 11/4: Reignited Games 2018 (Wilmington, NC) 

11/3 – 11/4: Charlotte Throwdown for Mental Health Awareness (Charlotte, NC)

11/3 – 11/4: GameDay Championship (St. Paul, MN)

11/3 – 11/4: Clearwater Beach Brawl (Clearwater, FL)

11/04 – 11/05: WODNATION BR (Vinhedo, Brazil)

11/10: Emerald Coast Honor Games (Destin, FL)

11/10 – 11/11: Extreme Games (Piauí, Brazil)

11/10 – 11/11: South Loop Games (Chicago, IL)

11/10- 11/11: Southie Showdown (Boston, MA)

11/10: Metcon 4 Hope (Reno, NV)

11/10: Best of the Wurst (New Braunfels, TX)

11/10: Warrior Affiliate League Delta Force (Duarte CA)

11/10: USA Powerlifting Veterans Day Championship (Philadelphia, PA) 

11/10: Bromageddon 2018 (Chandler, AZ)

11/10: First Annual Sergeants Fitness Patriot Games (Caldwell, ID)

11/11: Bonsai Brawl (Philadelphia, PA)

11/15: Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer @ Hybrid Athletics Bridgport (Bridgeport, CT)

11/16 – 11/17: Veterans Day Bash at CrossFit Wild West (Lubbock,TX)

11/17: MetCon Mashups CrossFit Lubbock (Lubbock,TX)

11/17: CrossFit TIG Turf Wars (Brighton, MI)

11/17: 2018 Energy Games (Houston, TX)

11/17: MetCon Mashups (Tulsa, OK) 

11/17: Green Valley Clash of the Fittest (Green Valley, AZ)

11/17: Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer @ Invictus Boston (Boston, MA)

11/17: Team SuperFit Charlotte (Charlotte, NC)